I trawl the interweb (thanks James May ) often. And I read (thought not as much as the Bloke) insane amounts of stuff. One of my favourites is the 'On this day' material. I enjoy reading about history, remembering some events that occured during my formative years, others that of course took place before I was even a mere cell.

I visit a few sites and often compare information on them. I like the BBC version as it has the story, with background info and links to other information.

And so I got to thinking. Thought it might be an idea for a thread. Either global events of the past, national ones, or personal ones. Take your pick and post away. If its a personal, or maybe national (or local even) 'on this day' milestone, maybe share a bit of background info with us, to bring us up to speed. Ultimately this is meant to be an enjoyable thing to read and post to, but please don't feel that serious matters cannot also be posted here. They are welcome also. Please exercise caution if you feel something you may post might be a flammable topic.

THREAD NOTICE

Political subject matter. I realise on this forum I have asked for politics to be left at the door, however I realise that in this 'On This Day' thread, such things are found in history. With this in mind, I shall allow some leeway. Therefore, I will be keeping an eye on things and would like people to understand the following

In this thread, while I have no objection to 'On This Day' political subject matter being posted as many many events around the world have been shaped by politics, please don't venture into a political debate here or use it as a way of getting your own personal political views over. If political is posted, keep it to the 'On This Day' information and try and resist getting up on the soapbox to pick it apart or argue why it was wrong or right or anything else. For sure you can talk about it, if you can keep your political views out of it and be impartial. Often easier to do with events from before your lifetime I have discovered Either way, political events changed history, for good or bad, they did so. Arguing the case for or against it here after serves no purpose than to get you deleted. So keep it general and friendly please. If my guidelines for this prove impossible to adhere to, or if people feel that this is not suitable, then I shall rethink the posting of past political events in this thread.

Last edited by Sherry on Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

The four members of the British hit band, the Beatles, have arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States. The young men, with their now infamous mop-head hairstyles, stepped onto the tarmac at Kennedy Airport just after 1300 local time. There were more than 3,000 screaming teenagers at the airport. Many had skipped school or work. Some were in tears and some were carrying placards with phrases such as "I love you, please stay".

The Beatles' first scheduled appearance will be on American television on Sunday on the Ed Sullivan show. He apparently booked them to appear after seeing the huge crowds who greeted their return to Heathrow from Sweden last October. More than 5,000 fans applied for tickets to be part of the audience for the live show - only 750 were lucky enough to get them.

The Beatles - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison - received maximum police protection, the kind of arrangement usually produced for kings and presidents. There were security barriers too, without which, the Beatles would almost certainly have been crushed by the throng of screaming women.

Elsewhere in the United States, excitement over the Beatles' arrival has reached almost fever-pitch. Their songs are playing constantly on radio stations, in shops and other places of work.

Millions of Beatle records have already been sold and a company called Puritan Fashions Incorporated, which describes itself as "the only exclusive official licensed manufacturer of Beatle wearing apparel" is marketing T-shirts, sweat shirts, turtle-neck sweaters, tight-legged trousers, night shirts, scarves and jewellery inspired by the Beatles.

Beatle wigs are also for sale at $2.99 each - or the equivalent of one guinea.

While in orbit 170 miles above Earth, Navy Captain Bruce McCandless becomes the first human being to fly untethered in space when he exits the U.S. space shuttle Challenger and maneuvers freely, using a bulky white rocket pack of his own design. McCandless orbited Earth in tangent with the shuttle at speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour and flew up to 320 feet away from the Challenger. After an hour and a half testing and flying the jet-powered backpack and admiring Earth, McCandless safely reentered the shuttle.

Later that day, Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stewart tried out the rocket pack, which was a device regarded as an important step toward future operations to repair and service orbiting satellites and to assemble and maintain large space stations. It was the fourth orbital mission of the space shuttle Challenger.

February 8th in History
This Day in History > February 8th
February 8th in History
1725: Catherine the Great becomes the Empress of Russia
1924: Gas chamber used for the first time in an American state prison
1926: Walt Disney Studios is formed
1942: Congress advises FDR that Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
1969: Last edition of Saturday Evening Post, which used to carry Norman Rockwell covers.
1969: First test flight of the Boeing 747 Jumbo jet
1973: Senate names seven members to investigate Watergate scandal
1974: The US spacestation, Skylab, crashes back to Earth, breaking up in the atmosphere

February 8th birthdays
1819: John Ruskin, English writer and artist
1820: William Sherman, US general whom the 'Sherman Tank' was named after
1828: Jules Verne, French author
1920: Lana Turner, American film actress
1925: Jack Lemmon, Veteran American film actor
1931: James Dean, American film actor ('Rebel Without A Cause')
1932: John Williams, US film score writer

The United Kingdom gets a new Queen. This was not the day of the official coronation however. That happened later.

1952: New Queen proclaimed for UKPrincess Elizabeth has formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith.

Lords of the Council - numbering 150 - representatives from the Commonwealth, officials from the City of London - including the Lord Mayor - and other dignitaries witnessed the accession of the deceased king's eldest daughter this morning.

The new monarch read an official Proclamation - also ordered to be published - declaring her reign as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.

I remember being fascinated by Watergate. As a kid (teen) I would read avidly about it. I still find myself drawn to reading things on it whenever I stumble across them.

And oooo, Boeing have clocked up a lot of air miles since then

Watergate is definately fascinating. All of the mystery; how high up did it go? Who knew what when? I became seriously interested when I saw All The Presidents Men as a teen (great movie, btw!). Now of course any political scandal gets tagged as Whatever-Gate. There was MonicaGate and WhitewaterGate. Silly.

Johnnyp wrote:Hey Gayle thanks for not noticing I mispelled "HERE" I fixed mine but now yours is wrong

You have NO idea just how badly I wanted to say something about the humor of using the wrong word when you are writing really big and in red - but I decided tp be nice but since you mentioned it first.......